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United States Patent | 5,287,531 |
Rogers, Jr. ,   et al. | February 15, 1994 |
An apparatus for determining system configuration in a computer system using only one 8 bit data port. Permanent connections on each of the microprocessor and memory boards provide respective configuration and/or memory information about each board. The signals are stored in serial out shift registers associated with each board that are daisy chained together. These shift registers serially transmit the configuration information to one 8 bit data port, which then transmits this information to the computer system in 8 bit increments. If a given slot is empty it is automatically bypassed in the shift register daisy chain.
Inventors: | Rogers, Jr.; Harry R. (Spring, TX); Landry; John A. (Tomball, TX); Izquierdo; Javier F. (Houston, TX) |
Assignee: | Compaq Computer Corp. (Houston, TX) |
Appl. No.: | 606165 |
Filed: | October 31, 1990 |
Current U.S. Class: | 710/109 |
Intern'l Class: | G06F 012/02 |
Field of Search: | 395/800,700,250 364/DIG. 1,DIG. 2 |
4313159 | Jan., 1982 | Shoap | 395/425. |
4617566 | Oct., 1986 | Diamond | 340/870. |
5027313 | Jun., 1991 | Culley | 395/425. |
5056015 | Oct., 1991 | Baldwin et al. | 395/500. |